Williams Talks Dolls

This interview with British actress Olivia Williams, who plays Adelle Dewitt the "madame" of the Dollhouse in the upcoming show of the same name, has made me more excited about the show than any trailer, review, or picture that has been released til this point. Her dedication to and intellectual investment in the role are made quite obvious here. Williams is so eloquent and particular in her responses and she completely opens up the mythology, intrigue and potential of the show in a way that no promotional material or interview has done for me. Excerpts below.

About her character, Williams says:

[The challenge in playing Adelle] is the combination of playing someone who’s trying to grasp on to moral explanations for her behavior while dealing with abject loneliness. She’s lonely and has great empathy with people who are prepared to pay a vast amount of money for a date. Which means she’s completely morally corrupt ultimately. It’s just such a great double-edged part and you know we actors love the subtext, darling. Joss got me with the subtext.

And in response to the question about what she would tell potential viewers of the show, Williams assures the reader:

It will pay off. It will pay off if you stick with it. The first episodes have got the action and the glamour and set up the premise: What if you could buy whatever you wanted? But then you find yourself in a moral haze. “OK, is getting what I want good for me? Is it going to make me happy? Where does it lead morally and what are the implications of creating a fake personality? Do we have souls? If our brains were being wiped, is there anything in the soul that could survive?”

I think the people who are there to see [Eliza Dushku] in a bikini –- which is a great thing-are going to find themselves with a moral dilemma that they might not expect.

Dollhouse premieres one week from tomorrow at 9PM on FOX. Also, TV Addict reports that the second episode, "The Target", is even better than the premiere.